A regulator that is a voltage control apparatus of a vehicle AC generator is furnished with a function of regulating an output voltage of a generator by controlling ON and OFF of a field current flown through a field winding.
Besides the voltage control function, regulators used recently are furnished with a communication function with an external in-vehicle device and a function of suppressing an abrupt rise in drive torque of a generator by making an increase in output current moderate when an electrical load increases. On the other hand, the mainstream of a voltage control circuit in the regulator is in the form of integrated circuit (IC) chips and an IC regulator of a mold package type in which a voltage control circuit and connection terminals of the voltage control circuit and an external circuit are molded integrally (see, for example, Patent Document 1) is used in some cases.
The IC regulator of the mold package type is mounted on a regulator holder having an integrally molded insert terminal to which a connection terminal of the IC regulator is joined. In this instance, in order to join the connection terminals at high reliability, it is necessary to position the connection terminals with respect to each other first and then to mechanically fix the IC regulator to the regulator holder.
Patent Document 1 describes an example where positioning is performed by bringing a protrusion provided to an IC regulator mount portion of the regulator holder into engagement with a through-hole provided to the IC regulator so that mechanical fixation is achieved.